Eclecticism as a philosophy #ramble

It is Sunday morning and so I let you into the labyrinth of neurons that is my mind and share my thoughts with you. It was the local elections this week. Which way did I vote? Well the local UKIP party disintegrated and their members stood for some other obscure party. The Greens didn’t do very well, perhaps because they aren’t all that realistic. Their public image is one of pet-owning vegans wanting to turn us all into animal-loving Greenpeace disciples. So the real race was between the Conservatives and Labour. My philosophy is one of eclecticism

Eclecticism

I do apply eclecticism to life and that includes my political views. Jeremy Corbyn wants to use quantitative easing, just print money and then use that money to nationalise whole industries and build houses. The Conservatives would argue that just printing money would stoke up demand and cause runaway inflation. Who is right? Well, both sides really. Think about it like an economist. If you stoke up demand it will cause inflation but if that money is used to build housing, which we desperately need, then we also increase supply, which balances things out. Take away the dogma, the Corbyn desire to nationalise and the Conservative desire to let the markets decide and you have a rational policy that would be good for us; the people.

Investments

I also try to apply eclecticism to my investment strategy and diversify. I wish I had diversified more than I have. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and the same applies to ideas, political beliefs and beliefs about life itself.

Photography

Yes, eclecticism drives my passion for photography too. I’ll point my camera at anything and the diverse range of subjects produces a contrast. I did a bit of street photography yesterday and also photographed forget-me-nots in the garden.

Nonconformist

I suppose I am a nonconformist, a rebel, a contrarian who rejects the join this and follow that brigade. If you have a good idea I might borrow it, if you have good ideas and bad ideas, I’ll reject the bad ideas. I won’t accept all your ideas out of friendship or duty. If you want to run naked down the street, I won’t applaud your bravery and the same applies to getting a snake tattoo across your rear end. Daft ideas are daft ideas and shouldn’t ever be encouraged. Let’s build a high-speed railway from the north of England to London. Why? Well there are lots of jobs in London and people want to come here to work. But London is already very crowded and there aren’t enough homes. Ah, well with a high-speed train, they can commute.

HS2 is a daft idea and a very expensive idea but a lucrative idea for many people. It is an idea driven by greed. Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn, they are both idiots when it comes to HS2 so we have to wonder about the rest of their ideas. Theresa May’s handling of Brexit hasn’t impressed me so far.

Philosophy

So eclecticism is more or less my philosophy of life. Believe in the good ideas, reject the crap ones. Photograph everything and keep the good photos and delete the crap ones. Try different things and find out what is enjoyable and what is not. Live a life driven by eclecticism.